Housing Association Chimney Issue

hollip0p

Hi,

I hope someone on here will be able to help me with this.

My mum rents a HA home and has lived there since 2007-ish. She's always been a good tenant, paid bills on time, kept the house presentable etc etc. When she moved in to the house, the living room had an open fireplace. This wasn't in use and my mum ended up covering it up with a decorative electric fireplace she brought from her previous house. No major changes involved, she literally just placed it over the fireplace. In 2013, the HA came out to fit a cowl on to the chimney as there were birds coming down and general rubbish.

A couple of months ago my mum decided to get the living room re-plastered, and have the old fireplace on show again, at her own cost. She still won't be using the fireplace, it's purely decorative and she has just tidied it up. She had a professional chimney sweep come out and he advised her that there was no cowl on the chimney, and one needed to be fitted to stop birds/rubbish coming down and making a mess of the living room.

Long story short, after speaking to the HA it looks like they fitted the cowl on to the wrong chimney back in 2013. :T

They sent one of their contractors out a couple of weeks ago and my mum was advised he would clean the chimney again and fit the cowl. He cleaned the chimney, but told my mum that he wasn't fitting the cowl as no decision had yet been made as to whether one was required. My mum has since spoken to her HA who have confirmed the contractors advised no cowl is required on the property and so one will not be fitted as a yearly sweep will suffice.

I am unable to upload a photo as I am a new poster, but if you could see the amount of rubbish that came down when the contractor swept the chimney you would agree that a yearly sweep is not enough.

My mum has lodged a complaint with her HA as there has been a lot of going back and forth/miscommunication etc etc and her local housing manager came out to see her last week. She has gone away to look into it but did say it might end up that the HA decide the chimney needs boarding up completely to avoid costs involved with fitting the cowl.

Where does my mum stand on this? She has paid a lot of money to get the living room to a nice standard and would be extremely upset if they now come out and board it back up.

To me, her HA made a mistake back in 2013 and it is their responsibility to rectify that mistake. We have the job references etc to prove they came out to fit a cowl, and they have acknowledged that it was fit to the wrong chimney so I don't understand why they won't do that?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Cheeky_Monkey

I'm surprised your mum didn't notice back in 2013 when the contractors came to fit a cowl that they hadn't actually done so - they're pretty easy to see.

I think the cost-conscious HA will take the cheapest route, both now and for the future, regardless of what should have happened 2 or 3 years ago and I don't think there's much your mum can do about it.

Unfortunately, that's the price your mum will have to pay (literally) for spending a lot of money on a house she doesn't own.

LittleMax

Clearly it's not been an issue since 2013 - so HA are correct that if the fireplace is covered a cowl is not required. I presume that should your Mum want the fireplace to be open then the HA will giver her permission to have a cowl fitted at her own expense.

The fact that the cowl was previously ordered in 2013 but fitted to the wrong chimney is a red herring.

rtho782

It's your mum that has decided to interfere with the chimeny, the HA were perfectly happy with their property as it was.

hollip0p

Thanks for your replies, looks like she will have to offer to arrange the cowl herself. It's just frustrating when that is something they should have done previously.

Also, to clarify, my mum isn't interfering or changing the fireplace. She is literally just removing the the electric fireplace she placed in front of it when she moved in, and giving it a tidy.